Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.5%), Nasdaq Composite (-1.2%), and DJIA (+0.1%) continue to show some modest improvement this afternoon. 

The financials sector (+1.3%) is back near session highs after ceding over half of its previous gains in the midday hours. While the sector is supported by broad strength, financial publishing and software names dot the top of the sector's leaderboard, rising in tandem with a broader improvement across software names today. NASDAQ (NDAQ 88.82, +4.83, +5.75%) is the top performer, while Block (XYZ 54.24, +2.30, +4.44%) and FactSet (FDS 215.13, +8.51, +4.12%) also sport solid gains. 

The industrials sector (+0.6%) has also made a nice move into positive territory, also supported by outperformance in software components such as Equifax (EFX 207.44, +9.32, +4.70%) and Paycom Software (PAYC 129.04, +5.13, +4.14%). 

The iShares GS Software ETF is up 2.1%.